Simon Bisley has become a name synonymous with bulging muscles, voluptuous vixens, and all around craziness.  I remember the first thing that ever grabbed me about his art, aside from the obvious overly endowed women, was the dimensionality of the characters.  They looked like sculptures animated by way of a fever dream.  Frenetic.  And it is with this admiration of his art that I bring you my top five favorite Biz pieces.

Disclaimer: I don’t know the proper titles for a couple of the pieces on here, in which case I just made something up.  Allow it.

Hellblazer 263 (Cover)
This image of John Constantine smearing a bindi is as striking as it is simple.  His is an expression that is equal parts worry and dread.  The light emanating from below gives the scene  an ominous mood while the tight shot gives a sense of active participation in the scene.  A character as closely associated with Catholic-themed horror as Hellblazer isn’t easy to drop into Hindu culture, and it’s even tougher to pull off with just one image.  Bisley doesn’t go mainstream too often, but when he does, he makes it count.

The Nativity
Speaking of religion, this here is probably my favorite piece from his Bible-themed artbook.  The angel Gabriel appears as a haunting cloaked spectre and looks more like a ghost than a messenger of God.  Mary’s humble circumstances are lit by a single light source, instantly giving the piece a sense of focus.  From the torch our eye follows down along the angel’s other hand as he greets the virgin with a message.  My favorite little  detail is the woman’s slight paunch, hinting that she may be with child.

Tigress

And then of course, there’s the women.  I mean… there had to have been a reason why I spotted him on Heavy Metal first, right?  The theatrical lighting on this piece (focused on her bum, no less) gives it a very staged look, which is always a nice irony for jungle and wilderness-themed pieces.  The woman’s pose echoes that of her striped friend, and in place of the cat’s teeth is a long dagger in her hand.  Her expression is one of curiosity and playfulness, a stare so piercing it has reduced the jungle in the background to the shapes and colors that define it.

Jaguar God
This and the previous piece are absolutely in the spirit of Frazetta.  That is, if Fraz was on LSD.  This image of the wild man in what appears to be a jungle graveyard is a powerful example of Bisley’s command of atmosphere and mood.  The slightly yellow hue to the greenery hints at a sense of rot and decay, and the skulls are concealed enough that you don’t spot them on the outset.  To sell it, bats hover over our heroes head, as would opportunistic flies looking for a free meal.

Beauty and the Beast
Again with the bats.  This is easily one of my favorite takes on Frankenstein’s monster.  He’s got the classic Boris Karloff melancholic expression and flat head, but with steam punk elements like the valve in the knee joint that apparently releases pressure.  Bisley’s mastery of the female form is showcased without having to show too many naughty bits.  The final element of the swamp gas and foliage completes the scene and allows us to almost hear the muddy waters being disrupted as the creature lurches away with his prize.

Five Quitelys

Five Frazettas

In Search of Moebius – Jean Giraud _clip2/3 by foivosloxias

In Search of Moebius – Jean Giraud_clip3/3 by foivosloxias

WE3 #1; “Bullet storm”

In the opening of sequence of this mini-series, we are treated to this absolutely stunning image of a hail of bullets eviscerating a human body.  I remember seeing this image for the first time and just dropping my jaw.  The shot is also saved from being too cluttered simply because the artistic decision was made to leave out any trace of background.

All-Star Superman #6; “A boy and his dog”

In this flashback issue, we visit a younger Superman who happens to still have a super-powered dog.  This image manages to capture a genuine sense of playfulness and wonder.  Anyone who has ever run around with a pet dog knows how satisfying it can be.  A playground doesn’t get much grander than a crater on the moon.

American Virgin #1 (cover)

American Virgin was a relatively short-lived series from DC’s Vertigo imprint.  It told the story of a teenage televangelist on a quest to understand the secrets of sexuality and how it related (or conflicted) with his religious beliefs.  I feel this single image that Quitely did captures the spirit of the book,  as well as the feeling the main character had of being swallowed in a living subculture that was as ugly as it was beautiful.  I dare anyone to find a comic cover that’s about 75% taste buds.

All-Star Superman #11; ” POV”

This is a pretty small panel in the masterwork that is All-Star Superman.  It’s a favorite of mine for two reasons:  First because my answer for what superpower I’d want, ever since I was a child, was flight — and this first-person point of view is what I imagine flying over a city would look like.  And second, because this shot was selected with the story in mind.  This panel tells us that Superman is flying to the Daily Planet without having to show us his face or how he is dressed.  This has purpose within the context of the story, but I’ll leave that detail out for those of you who haven’t yet read the book.

You should really be ashamed of yourselves though.

Just sayin’.

And of course.  Something I like to call “Cat Slices of Time” from WE3 #2.

WE3 was such a great book in the sense that it had so many innovative storytelling techniques.  And with the main characters being animals, the great art was never obstructed by excessive dialogue.  This is my favorite sequence in the entire series because it has really intelligent action choreography at the same time using the panel design to tell you that it’s all happening extremely fast.

Obviously, the guy is pretty fucking awesome.  The only real drawback is that he’s not quite as prolific as I often wish he was, but at least it means that whenever he puts something out, it’s special.

The thing is though, I’ve gone from riverbottom scum to riverbank fungus… writing skill-wise, and am now paying better attention to the duality of the comics medium.  Picture and Text.  Image and Thought.  It should be very obvious really, but I’m not exactly the easiest person to teach things to.  Especially when the teacher is me.

Sequential storytelling will kick the story forward with images.  It’s the first thing that hits you because it’s passively consumed.  You can’t help but see a picture.  But when scenes are just strung together (my scenes anyway) with just the images advancing the narrative, the story feels jittery and choppy.  I’m learning these days that while the text obviously carries dialogue and exposition, it is also the strongest tool in scene transition.  A speaker’s words can carry over into the next scene even if he is not present in that scene, creating a sense of continuity.  It sounds simple enough, but it’s surprisingly difficult to pull off.

From Remender's Uncanny X-Force

As for how the spillover text relates to the new scene, that’s a whole other thing entirely.  It can act as a simple throughline connecting the most trivial of story elements together, or it can be a foreshadowing narrative.  It’s all depends on how it’s used.  But one thing’s for certain today… Scene Transition:  A skill definitely worth developing.

And then a voice said, “You require more minerals…”

(Reuters) – Astronomers have spotted an exotic planet that seems to be made of diamond racing around a tiny star in our galactic backyard.

The new planet is far denser than any other known so far and consists largely of carbon. Because it is so dense, scientists calculate the carbon must be crystalline, so a large part of this strange world will effectively be diamond…

“The evolutionary history and amazing density of the planet all suggest it is comprised of carbon — i.e. a massive diamond orbiting a neutron star every two hours in an orbit so tight it would fit inside our own Sun,”

via